Shamell Lavigne, chief operating officer of Rise St. James, speaks at a press conference after a court hearing for a lawsuit environmental justice groups and a church in St. James Parish filed against the parish government in New Orleans on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (Safura Syed/Verite News)
NEW ORLEANS – A federal appeals court heard oral arguments Monday in a civil rights case alleging that St. James Parish discriminates against its Black residents through zoning laws that push polluting industrial facilities near their homes, schools and churches.
The environmental justice groups are asking the court to impose a moratorium on parish permits for the construction of new petrochemical facilities in the parish. There are currently 15 facilities in St. James Parish that emit chemicals dangerous to human health, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxic Release Inventory.
The suit was filed in March 2023 by Inclusive Louisiana, Mount Triumph Baptist Church and Rise St. James against the parish government, including its council and planning commission.
A district judge dismissed the case in November of that year because of a statute of limitations on personal injuries. The environmental groups appealed that decision to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, representing the environmental groups, argued Monday that a 2014 land use plan adopted by the parish was discriminatory because it allowed polluting facilities to be built in majority-Black areas of the parish while prohibiting them from being built in majority-white areas. And the lawyers say the plan continues to have negative impacts on the Black residents of St. James.
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“Their argument is what one of the judges pointed out, which is, if you don’t challenge discrimination within a year of becoming aware of it, too bad you just have to deal with discrimination,” said Center for Constitutional Rights attorney Pam Spees, who argued on behalf of Inclusive Louisiana.
Members of the St. James Parish Council told Verite News they could not comment on pending litigation. In court, lawyers for the parish argued that St. James was not responsible for any injuries that Plaintiffs have suffered because actions made by industrial groups occurred on private property.
The 2014 land use plan labeled areas in Black-majority districts as “Existing Residential / Future Industrial.” Local advocates say this distinction allows industries to pollute their communities, which have some of the highest rates of cancer risk in Louisiana, according to research from Tulane University. In 2018, the plan was amended to remove buffer zones around plantations, certain schools and Catholic churches. Spees called the buffer zones blatantly discriminatory, and the plaintiffs in the case claim officials in St. James Parish continue to make decisions as if the zones still exist on paper.
Meanwhile, whiter parts of the parish are spared from industrial development. In June, the parish denied the construction of a solar panel farm near residential areas in south Vacherie, a predominantly white community. Planning for the farm was also stalled two years ago when the local government approved a temporary moratorium on solar panels throughout the parish. Spees said that differences in permitting practices in white and Black areas of the parish represent clear racial discrimination.
In a press conference after the hearing, Pastor Harry Joseph of Mount Triumph Baptist Church said that if the parish could stop the solar panel farm, it should also stop polluting industries from being built.
“Why [can’t they] give us a moratorium for what we know is best for our people, and that is to stop any other plant from coming into St. James?” Joseph said. “So it’s time that we just let them know that enough is enough.”
The case also argues that the parish violated the 13th and 14th amendments by issuing land-use permits to industrial facilities to build and operate in majority-Black areas of the parish and are dangerous to the community’s “right to bodily integrity.”
Shamell Lavigne, the chief operating officer of Rise St. James, said the outcome of this case will impact frontline communities nationwide.
“It is a call to action for everyone who believes in the right to a clean and safe environment,” Lavigne said during a press conference after the hearing. “It is residents saying no more to being a sacrifice for the rest of the country for single-use plastic, oil and gas.”
Members of the groups suing the parish are also trying to protect and preserve the gravesites of their enslaved ancestors. There are two cemeteries in the parish located on property owned by Shell, the multinational oil and gas corporation, and another on land where a new Formosa Plastics complex has been proposed.
After the hearing, Spees said she was hopeful about the outcome of the appeal, which would allow the case for a moratorium to continue in court. The plaintiffs said in the lawsuit that they want the parish to create a community board to appoint an independent monitor for air quality, create a committee of experts who will identify the locations of unmarked cemeteries and initiate a mediation process between the parish and community members who feel they’ve been harmed by the proliferation of petrochemical facilities.
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This article first appeared on Verite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.